BUDDHIST MILITANTS IN JAPANESE POLITICS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP79-00927A004100080002-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 10
• Document Creation Date: December 19, 2016
• Sequence Number: 2
• Content Type: REPORT

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2 August 1963
OCI No. 0291/63A
Copy No 77-
SPECIAL REPORT
OFFICE OF CURRENT INTELLIGENCE
BUDDHIST MILITANTS IN JAPANESE POLITICS
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
SECRET
GROUP I Excluded from automatic
downgrading. and declassification
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'T'HIS MATERIAL CONTAINS INFORMATION AFFECT-
ING THE NATIONAL DEFENSE OF THE UNITED STATES
WITHIN THE MEANING OF THE ESPIONAGE LAWS,
TITLE 18, USC, SECTIONS 793 AND 794, THE TRANSMIS-
SION OR REVELATION OF WHICH IN ANY MANNER TO
_-N UNAUTHORIZED PERSON IS PROHIBITED BY LAW.
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2 August 1963
Militant members of a nationalistic Buddhist
sect, Soka Gakkai, have forged a powerful, highly
disciplined organization of growing importance to
Japanese politics. Riding high on the revival of
religion and nationalism in Japan, the Soka Gakkai
now claims over nine million members, or 10 percent
of the population. It has recently strengthened
its position in local government, has the third
largest representation in the Upper House of the
Diet, and may enter the lists for the Lower House
in the next general election. Its orientation
is ambiguous, and it might throw a decisive weight
in the political scales either to the right or
the left.
Prewar Origin
The Soki Gakkai-literally
the Value Creation Academic So-
ciety--began as an obscure secu-
lar group some 30 year ago. Its
members now regard its founder,
Jozaburo Makiguchi, as a rein-
carnation of the 13th century Budd-
hist reformer Nichiren.
Makiguchi's early life in
backward northern Japan was
characterized by economic pri-
vation and limited schooling.
Making the most of his oppor-
tunities, he and his followers
turned their experiences to
profit by providing "cram courses"
and study-aids and outlines for
growing numbers of Tokyo students.
Out of this grew Makiguchi's
"short-cut to happiness" formula,
which held that man's happiness
is attained by pursuing a trinity
of values: beauty, goodness, and
gain or profit,-with strong ma-
terialistic emphasis on the last.
He organized his "value-creating
education society" to publicize
and promote his highly pragmatic
theory, and linked it with relig-
ious faith by adhering to the
Shoshu sect of Nichiren Buddhism.
His fanatical support of
the sect's deification of Nichiren
appeared to Japan's military
rulers in 1943 as a threat to
the Shinto-supported Emperor, and
Makiguchi and his principal
followers were jailed. He died
in prison in 1944.
Postwar Expansion
Makiguchi's favorite disci-
ple, Josei Toda, was largely re-
sponsible for reviving the move-
ment after the war. He combined
evangelism and a shrewd business
sense.
Toda's genius produced funds,
publicity, and above all dynamic
young leadership. His personal
knowledge of the yearnings of in-
secure youth and his organiza-
tional flair set the Gakkai on
a continuously successful course,
in contrast to the languishings
of most other "new religions."
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ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE OF SOKA GAKKAI
AT ACCESSION OF PRESIDENT IKEDA
(3,41AY1960)
PRESIDENT
IKEDA
CHAIRMAN OF THE
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
GENERAL AFFAIRS DEPT. CHIEF
IKEDA
LOCAL
ORGANIZATIONS
BRANCH
5 - 10,000 HOUSEHOLDS
A
DISTRICT
500 - 1000 HOUSEHOLDS
STAFF
OFFICE
STANDING COMMITTEE
SENIOR ADVISOR
4 OTHER ADVISORS
4 COMMITTEE MEMBERS
FEMALE DIVISION
L
50 - 100 HOUSEHOLD
TEAM
10 - 15 HOUSEHOLDS
*COMPOSED OF DEAN, PROFESSORS,
ASSOCIATE PROFESSORS, AND
LECTURERS.
**HANDLED POLITICAL CAMPAIGNS
UNDER A COUNSELLOR UNTIL
CREATION OF AUTONOMOUS FAIR
POLITICS LEAGUE IN 1962.
CULTURAL DEPT.**
FINANCIAL AFFAIRS 1
DEPT.
SECTION COMMANDER
BUSINESS BUREAU
(ACCOUNTING,
PILGRIMAGES AND
PUBLISHING ENTER-
PRISES)
CLASSIFIED MATERIAL ON REVERSE OF PAGE
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Toda also established the
religious framework which pre-
vails today. He began by purg-
ing "heretical" elements in
the Shoshu sect. Gakkai control
was guaranteed by the strength
and unprecedented wealth that it
brought the previously minor
sect.
Gakkai's claims to represent
the orthodox line of Nichiren
Buddhism have been hotly but in-
effectively disputed. It has
continually denounced and vio-
lently attacked its rivals,
asserting that the Gakkai repre-
sents the one true religion
which is destined to become
Japan's national faith.
After becoming president
of the society in 1951, Toda
launched a membership drive
featuring forcible conversion
or shakubuku--literally "beat
down and subdue." The society
gained great numbers of new
recruits and much notoriety.
Success has given the Gakkai
greater confidence and patience
and now it is using somewhat
subtler methods of coercion.
Although such an approach to
religious conversations may be
a poor guarantee of permanence
and depth of faith, the elan
of the youth, the impact of
refurbished superstitions, and
the disciplined surveillance
of potential deserters--who
are threatened with the direst
sanctions--have reduced or ob-
scured the drop-out rate.
A youth corps Toda formed
spearheaded the aggressive con-
version campaign couched in
terms of a crusade or "holy
war." The corps is organized
and rigidly disciplined on mili-
tary lines. Uniforms, unit
colors and martial music are
reminiscent of both prewar Japan
and the Hitler Youth. At Toda's
death in 1958 the corps lead over
200,000 members; it now has over
800,000.
The youth corps is largely
credited with the upsurge of
membership in Toda's years as
president. In his first two
years in office, membership in
the society is said to have in-
creased from about 5,000 to over
50,000 "households," the Gakkai's
vague unit calculated to have
an average of three persons.
The most significant de-
velopment during Toda's incum-
bency was the society's decision
in 1955 to enter politics, ini-
tially at the local level. Polit-
ical action may have been developed
as one more technique for dem-
onstrating how the saint Nichiren,
working through the Gakkai, could
help his followers. The decision
was apparently prompted by a
struggle with the trade union and
socialist leadership in Hokkaido
for the allegiance of local coal
miners.
Leader Daisaku Ikeda
In the two years following
Toda's death, Daisaku Ikeda, a
favored youth corps leader and
deputy director of the society,
gradually consolidated his con-
trol, and although only in his
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DAISAKU IKEDA
thirties, was installed as presi-
dent in 1960. He is the paragon
of postwar leaders who are making
the Gakkai so successful.
Of humble origins and no
kin to Japan's prime minister,
Ikeda as a teenager was handi-
capped by Japan's postwar malaise.
He was unable to complete his
education and had an illness
which he claims was cured by
association with Toda and the
Gakkai. He worked in Toda's pub-
lishing house and in a related
firm while being tutored in the
ways of the society.
After 1951 he rose rapidly
to a top position in the youth
corps and then moved on to
Gakkai headquarters. He was in-
strumental in stalemating
leftist and labor union resist-
ance in Hokkaido. Ikeda's abil-
ity to attract votes away from
the left has contributed much
to Gakkai electoral successes
While Ikeda is not known as an
orator he is a successful evan-
gelist who has personal magnetism
and stage presence,.
Growth Abroad
Under Ikeda Gakkai member-
ship has proliferated abroad
and among aliens, as well as
among native-born Japanese. The
sect had spread to the Ryukyus
before he became president, and
he quickly initiated action to
extend the organization around
the globe. An "Orient Academic
Research Institute" was founded
to provide material for a Far and
Middle East mission, at present
mostly in Okinawa. The Gakkai
claims to have 7,000 households
in the Ryukyus now.
A major effort was centered
on Taiwan, where the faith al-
ready had been spread by Japanese-
educated mainlanders and Taiwanese.
The sect has met resistance from
the Nationalist government and
was banned in April of this year.
While it has formally disbanded,
its more than 1,000 members may
continue worshipping in private.
The society is apparently
growing in the US, attracting
principally Americans of Japanese
descent. It had about 7,500
members here in 1962. Ikeda
made his first trip to set up
branches in the US in 1960 and
has returned on several occasions.
He had hoped to meet President
Kennedy this spring to represent
the wishes of "one million Japa-
nese youth" that nuclear testing
be ended, but canceled his trip,
apparently out of pique over a
casual reference to his society
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as "heretical" on the part of a
spokesman for the governing
Liberal Democratic Party.
The Gakkai has also attracted
American servicemen stationed in
or returned from Japan through
their Japanese girl friends or
wives. US Forces Japan reports
members at practically all bases,
numbering at least 450 men, and
another 1,500 previously assigned
to Japan may have joined. The
Society had begun publishing
some of its propaganda in English.
Under Ikeda, Soka Gakkai
has steadily improved its extra-
ordinary record for winning in
local and Upper House elections,
as political action assumed an
important place in the society's
program. In the local elections
of 1959 the Gakkai elected all
of its 76 candidates to the Tokyo
ward assemblies and over 90 per-
SOKA GAKKAI ELECTORAL RECORD
REPRESENTATION POPULAR CANDIDATES
IN UPPER HOUSE VOTE ELECTED IN
YEAR JAPANESE DIET (in millions) LOCAL ELECTIONS
1955 - -
1956 3 1
1959 9 3
1962 15 4
1963 - -
50 +
cent of its contestants to other
municipal assemblies. When in
1962 it elected all nine of
its candidates to the Upper
House, it became the third
largest party there.
Increasing political activ-
ity led Soka Gakkai to create
a separate organization to con-
duct its campaigns. In 1962
this "Fair Politics League" took
over political action responsibil-
ities from an informal staff
in Ikeda's headquarters, ena-
bling the parent organization to
maintain a primarily religious
image.
The League enlarged the
Gakkai's political role in the
1963 local elections, electing
56 of its 57 candidates for the
more important regional legisla-
tures and 881 of its 886 in
municipal assemblies. In the
key Tokyo elections, all 17 of
its candidates won seats in the
metropolitan legislature and
all 136 in ward assemblies.
Gakkai support was again enlisted
for the incumbent conservative
governor, helping to defeat his
Socialist rival.
Provisions for Upper House
elections enable the League to
muster its tightly knit organiza-
tion for the greatest national
impact. Elections for the polit-
ically more potent Lower House
are run on a basis that would
impede similar reflection of
highly disciplined but localized
strength. Although it has not
yet felt the time ripe to enter
general elections for the Lower
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House, the League is steadily
developing potentialities to
exploit in that key contest when
it wishes.
Political Orientation
Through all these successes,
the society's political orienta-
tion has remained ambiguous.
At the outset, the Gakkai
denounced both major parties and
called for a general clean-up of
politics. Since then it has
increasingly espoused widely pop-
ular demands such as opposition
to nuclear testing and rearma-
ment, return of both the Ryukyu
and Kuril islands, closer ties,
especially economic, with main-
land China, and sweeping social
welfare measures. The organiza-
tion has indicated it opposes
any revision of the constitution
to modify Article 9 which formally
renounces war and war-making po-
tential. Municipal assemblymen
belonging to the sect have par-
ticipated in recent efforts to
block visits of US nuclear-pro-
pelled submarines.
The amorphous character of
the Gakkai's political stand
suggests that it could go either
to right or left. Japanese
intellectuals tend to relegate
the Gakkai to the "lunatic
fringe" on the far right be-
cause of its military-style organ-
ization and espousal of nationalist
aims. At the same time its self-
styled "new socialism" includes
emphasis on social welfare and
on major foreign policy goals
which coincide with those of the
`SOKA GAKKAI"
IN JAPANESE SCRIPT.
THE SOCIETY ENCOURAGES
CALLIGRAPHY.
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left. Ikeda calls for a synthesis
incorporating the "good points"
of both dialectical materialism
and "Christian" capitalism to
provide Japan with a fundamental
philosophy under which it can
prosper in peace.
In any event, nationalism,
long anathema in postwar Japan,
is making a comeback, and the
Gakkai is in the vanguard with
its symbols and slogans, its
flags and its loyalties, and its
general encouragement of
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traditional Japanese arts.
Moreover, its missionary effort
accords with Nichiren's belief
that it would be Japan's role
to carry "the light of Asia"
back to Buddhism's original
home in South Asia and hence
throughout the world.
Prospects
Some Japanese political
observers hold that the Gakkai
is at last approaching a politi-
cal zenith, having attracted the
maximum following from depressed
elements of society. The Gakkai
will probably continue to prof-
it some from trends toward urban-
ization. The great bulk of
Gakkai membership is concentrated
in the industrial centers where
it appeals to newly arrived
rural immigrants, as to the
"lonely crowd" of the diseased,
the dispossessed and the frus-
trated.
Although the Gakkai now
has the strength to elect a
fair number of Lower House mem-
bers--about 50 to 60 out of
4G7--its leaders, probably feel-
ing that they would have to do
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better than that to maintain
their spectacular record, deny
any intention to run candidates.
They are certainly opportunistic
enough to jump into the arena
should the immediate prospects
of electoral success improve by
the time of the next general
election--which must be held
by October 1964. In the mean-
time the Gakkai's representation
in the Upper House and through-
out local government keeps it
in the limelight.
In most cases the Gakkai
has cut more heavily into left-
wing votes than it has into
the conservatives'. Its bar-
gaining position has been pro-
gressively improved as the left
slowly rises and the conserva-
tives decline. Thus both ideolog-
ically and tactically Soka
Gakkai's political arm occupies
a central place in Japanese
politics. While it can move
in either direction, in a na-
tional crisis its nationalist
orientation suggests it would
probably throw its weight to-
ward the right. (SECRET NO
FOREIGN DISSEM)
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